After all of us are reborn, who plays Go?

"It's a mess... it's all a mess..."

Kiyotaka Taguchi leaned back in his office chair, looking at the statistical report published in the newly-published "Go Club" magazine, and he felt as if his whole body was drained away.

There is no fun, really no fun.

How did the favorable situation of 5 to 1 turn into this?

We felt there was no way we could lose.

If Kiyotaka Taguchi had felt that there was a one percent chance of losing, he would not have jumped out from behind the scenes to take the credit.

Now, he can no longer take any credit, but he will definitely have to take the blame.

Especially since Kiyotaka Taguchi participated in the first and second competitions as an organizer, he could already imagine how many people would point their fingers at him after this competition.

I regret not listening to Sakamoto! I should have stayed behind and not come out!

As a result, opening the champagne in advance to grab the credit ended up being a way to grab the blame.

The bastard Zhan Lang's winning streak left everyone, including the most tired Kiyotaka Taguchi, completely unprepared. Even after Takemiya Shohei lost, the entire Japanese Go community panicked.

In particular, Zhan Lang had always been alone against many opponents in two consecutive competitions, and he was always in desperate situations from the start.

But they have never lost a single game. Up to now, they have won seven games in a row, and a very high proportion of them are top-notch players, or even basically all of them are top-notch. Once again, they are the strong contenders for the title tournament.

It can be said that all the top-notch players in Japan were basically defeated by Zhan Lang, except for the two foreign top-notch players from China and South Korea who did not participate in the competition.

But the strength of these two people is not much different from that of others, so people don’t think that any miracle will happen in the business world with these two people.

They have already fought all four of them, how can they still be afraid of you two?
This makes many people in the Japanese Go community who are not very good at Go feel an unfathomable fear of Zhan Lang's strength.

Everyone’s logic is actually very simple. After all, if the battle level is not high enough, how can such a record be achieved?

Even some fans with weaker chess skills, or who have only been paying attention to Go from this tournament and don’t actually know much about the basic knowledge of Go, think that Zhan Lang has surpassed everyone and that the current Go landscape has become one superpower and many strong ones.

Zhan Lang is the only top-notch one, the others can only be said to be first-rate. Some even think that top-notch ones are not worthy of carrying Zhan Lang's shoes.

Zhan Lang is now the only true god of Go!
Even those who are capable and experienced think that Zhan Lang's strength has not yet reached that level, and that many wins in this chess game depend on luck, but even so, they are still not optimistic about the final game.

After all, Zhan Lang is in high spirits now, and with his previous superhuman record, even Takemiya Masahei was defeated by the opponent. Now Takenouchi Katsuya's strength is obviously inferior to Takemiya Masahei, so what can he use to win?
Even taking the head won’t work.

Among the ten full-time editors of the Go Club magazine, seven believed that Takenouchi Katsu would also lose to Zhan Lang.

These ten are not laymen who know nothing. Basically, they are editors who have had a lot of dealings with the field of Go, and many of them even have professional level.

And you have to know that this is a Japanese magazine! Everyone knows how conservative the Japanese are, and it is hard to say how much consideration the other three people have.

Even at least 60% of the employees in the Japan Shogi Association are not optimistic about Katsuya Takenouchi. Only some old people who have experienced Katsuya Takenouchi's glorious era still have some confidence.

After all, Takenouchi Katsuya had turned the tide when he was young, and he didn't believe that Takenouchi Katsuya was still able to do it now.

But Kiyotaka Taguchi didn't believe it.

"..."

Is it possible that God wants to destroy Japanese Go?

Zhan Lang's strength couldn't possibly reach that terrifying level. Everyone's previous estimates of him were clearly quite accurate. How could he have achieved this?

Kiyotaka Taguchi didn't dare to imagine what would happen next after this confirmed failure.

I just hope that my final struggle can play a certain role.

"Change the venue of the competition?"

Zhan Lang, who was having dinner at the Grand Palace Hotel, was surprised to hear the news and asked a question.

Before coming to Japan, the time, location and rules of the competition had basically been decided. Now the competition is going to be tomorrow, but the venue was suddenly changed.

The subsequent explanations and some other miscellaneous work all need to be adjusted, which is a considerable workload.

Just this simple adjustment will cause a lot of trouble for Japan.

The hotel they are staying in now is the hotel regularly arranged by the Japan Shogi Institute. Because it is very close to the Japan Shogi Institute, even ordinary walking distance would only take half an hour at most.

But if we change the place, it’s hard to say how far it will be.

Then Zhan Lang would have to get up early and go out, which might disrupt his daily routine.

"Are they going to Honnoji or something like that?" Zhan Lang suddenly remembered that he took a newspaper from the front desk when he came out, with the words "Sixth Heaven Demon King" written in bold black font on it.

Zhan Lang really didn't know how such a good young man could become a devil. It was impossible that a young man named Mingguangyuan Gates would jump out from the future and destroy him.

From a superstitious point of view, the Japanese might really want to try to kill their own demon king at the place where the previous demon king of the Sixth Heaven was burned to death.

At least from their point of view, this place is still a hindrance to the Demon King.

"No, we just moved to the fifth floor of the private school. But that place is very close to here, even closer than the Japan Chess Institute to our hotel."

"? Why change it so close?"

Zhan Lang asked in some surprise. He thought the Japanese would find some ways to disgust you like the Koreans did, such as asking you to run more or annoy you at the competition venue.

But now the distance has become shorter, and the change of place doesn’t seem to have any symbolic meaning.

If they continue to make trouble like this, only the Japanese will be hurt.

"The explanation they gave was that there was a scheduling conflict with the Japan Shogi Association's competition arrangements.

But it may be because you always win the competitions at the Nihon Ki-in, so they used this as an excuse to change the venue."

Hao Qiang counted on his fingers and found that Zhan Lang seemed to have won several games in the Japanese Chess Institute. Maybe they felt that the feng shui of the Japanese Chess Institute would be more favorable to Zhan Lang.

"That's true. I have never lost a ring match so far. If you look at it this way, I will win no matter where I go. They are all Feng Shui treasures."

When Zhan Lang heard this, he couldn't help but complain. He didn't understand what they were thinking about this kind of thing?

The possibility of scheduling conflicts is not...

Actually, it’s hard to say. Zhan Lang thought about the messy operations of the chess academies of China, Japan and South Korea. He could only say that the whole team was a makeshift one, so it was understandable if some accidents really happened.

Hao Qiang didn't care much about it. After all, if the other party made unreasonable demands, Hao Qiang might argue with them. But now there was no harm to him in changing the place, so he naturally agreed.

and……

"The Japanese side's change of location shows that they are afraid of losing, which is a good sign."

Zhan Lang just shook his head when he heard this: "It's the same everywhere."

"Indeed, it's almost impossible for Takenouchi Katsuya to beat you anyway."

Hao Qiang was already accustomed to Zhan Lang's indifferent expression, and said with full confidence.

Zhan Lang, who has won four consecutive games so far, gives Hao Qiang full confidence.

Even most people in Japan don't even expect to win. Doesn't this speak volumes?

Zhan Lang leaned back in his chair and said, "Don't be too optimistic. A journey of a hundred miles begins with a single step. Many people fall at the last moment."

Apart from anything else, when LG Lao Ke played against Da Shen, both China and South Korea had already acknowledged the birth of the nine-time champion. How could the top five players in South Korea possibly stop Lao Ke, who was number one in the world at the time?

As a contestant, Dashen said that it would be a miracle if he could win, and he hopes he can create a miracle.

The Chinese side even opened champagne in advance, and the chess academy even took people to a lecture on hard work before the competition, without even doing any preparation.

It can be seen how little importance they attach to this game.

Finally, the champagne exploded.

The same thing happened in the later Langke Cup. Everyone thought that Shen Zi was invincible. He was the only one who killed people, but no one could kill him. How could a bully who stumbled into the finals be a match for him?

After defeating his opponent in the first game, he went to play chess at night, and was defeated in two games in a row.

Even the Chinese were not prepared to open the champagne, thinking that the Korean Shin would win the championship. They didn't even buy flowers. Instead, they bought flowers from chess fans on the spot and gave them to the bully who won the championship.

Countless facts have proved that it is not advisable to open champagne in advance.

Even though Zhan Lang himself didn't see anything, he knew how much news would come from the country, and he could even imagine the atmosphere and mood of the entire country.

Zhan Lang knew that he was now in a situation where he could only win and not lose.

But the good thing is that the same is true for Katsu Takenouchi.

The responsibility of one city, one province, two prefectures, and forty-three counties in Japanese Go is on him. He must guard the last resort of Japanese Go.

(End of this chapter)